Articles such as boxes, containers and pallets that sit on the ground and/or hold goods should desirably be rigid and impact resistant. Thus, such articles made from plastics benefit by being formed from impact resistant polyolefins such as high density polyethylene, which is not only impact resistant, but can be rigid and inexpensive. However, it is also desirable that such articles not be slippery or become slippery such as when in contact with the wet ground, truck bed or interior, and holding slippery goods. In this regard, high density polyethylene can have the drawback of being slippery as it tends to have a low coefficient of friction.
Most non-skid articles such as pallets are made by physically attaching rubber-type pads to the surface or surfaces, or spraying a rubber-type compound on the article in a secondary operation. Such application of rubbers can impart a high coefficient of friction surface to the article. However, attaching the rubber by physical attachment or spraying involves secondary operations which increase the cost of articles such as pallets, which should be relatively inexpensive.
The present inventors have solved this and other problems by having a hard substrate material such as high density polyethylene compositions co-extruded with at least one high friction contact layer, thus forming an anti-skid sheet. Given that most rubbers would be difficult to co-extrude and form in secondary operations such as thermoforming, the inventors have further found that the use of a processable thermoplastic vulcanizate (or dynamically vulcanized alloy) such as Santoprene™ can be ideal for co-extrusion and subsequent thermoforming processes.